Weekend Box Office: Let the Race Begin

After a three-week reign, ‘Jumanji’ has finally been booted from the top of the box office charts. Meanwhile, last week’s announcement of the year’s Oscar nominations significantly boosted the attendance of many of the contending titles.

Although ‘Maze Runner: The Death Cure‘ defeated ‘Jumanji’ sequel, the film’s $23.5 million opening was a bit lower than the last installment, ‘The Scorch Trials‘ ($30.3 million). Considering the two-and-a-half year gap between them, that drop isn’t exactly surprising. After two weeks in international theaters, the movie has grossed $82 million, bringing its worldwide total to $105.5 million. While it’s not likely to surpass the $348.3 million and $312.3 million earned by the respective first and second films, since it was produced on a $62 million budget, ‘The Death Cure’ is at least bound to recoup production and marketing costs, and then some.

‘Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle‘ only fell 16% over its sixth week. Winning another $16.4 million, the film’s domestic total is now up to $338 million. With $484 million in foreign ticket sales, the $90 million sequel has made $822 million worldwide. Sony is feeling so confident about the ‘Jumanji’ IP that it’s rumored the third installment will debut alongside the release of the ninth ‘Star Wars’ episode. That could get messy.

After several weeks in limited release, ‘Hostiles‘ pushed out to 2,800 screens and found some success. Finishing in third place, it grossed $10.2 million, bringing its domestic total to $12 million. The gritty Western has yet to open overseas.

The only title to hold over better than ‘Jumanji’ was ‘The Greatest Showman‘, which simply won’t give up. Also in its sixth week, it only fell 11% and climbed back up into the #4 spot. I took my oldest daughters to a Saturday matinee that sold out, so seeing another $9.5 million weekend is no surprise to me. Each week, the film has continued to earn more than it did during its debut ($8.8 million), resulting in a stellar $126.4 million domestic total. Its foreign box office is at $133 million, giving it a $259.5 million worldwide gross.

‘The Greatest Showman’ and ‘The Post‘ flip-flopped positions on the chart. Falling 25% in attendance, ‘The Post’ made $8.8 million and now sits with a domestic total of $58.5 million. Overseas, the drama has pulled in $24.5 million, for a worldwide total of $83 million.

A film called ‘Padmaavat‘ landed at #10 and set a record as the highest-opening domestic debut for a Bollywood picture. From 324 locations, 295 of which were IMAX screens, the nearly three-hour movie took $4.2 million and the best per-screen average ($13,188) out of any Top 10 entry by more than double.

About Luke Hickman

From a young age, Luke has been obsessed with film. He studied film at Utah Valley University from 2005-08 and he reviewed movies for the weekly student publication "The College Times"/"UVU Review." Luke critiques films for "The Stubbs Show" on 101.5FM KEGA and on The Reel Place, a website that he co-created with fellow High-Def Digest writer Aaron Peck.

7 comments

‘Jumanji’ still hasn’t opened in Belgium (it will this Wednesday). No idea why it took so long (most blockbusters open ahead of the domestic releases nowadays), but it means the international box office totals will likely have increased by next week.

Bolo

Is Sony seriously going to open ‘Jumanji 3’ on the same weekend as a Star Wars movie? I think some of the novelty of there being new Star Wars movies has worn off and you no longer have to give a Star Wars movie a whole month to do its business, but going head to head with a film aimed at the same demographic is just foolish. Next you’ll be telling me they’re giving it a budget of 300 mill and handing the reigns to Sam Mendes.

Bolo

Everybody I know who grew up on ‘Jurassic Park’ took their kids to see that last one with Chris Pratt. It was kid-friendly for the kids, nostalgia-friendly for the adults. Maybe the same thing happened here? Parents had fond memories of the “brand” and so they were more eager to take their kids to see it.

As for why they didn’t make a sequel sooner? I dunno, maybe they never thought of it. Maybe its success was attributed more to the appeal of Robin Williams than the movie itself and so they just focused on finding another kids movie to put Robin Williams in rather than revisiting the same premise.

William Henley

I truthfully don’t remember the first Jumanji being a huge hit when it came out. Adjusted for inflation, the first movie only made $16 million on opening weekend in the US, and that was a mid December release. I think the movie really started becoming popular after hitting home video and playing on cable. Interestingly, looking at Box Office Mojo, it looks as if the movie had pretty strong staying power at the theater, and pulled in about the same amount every weekend for about a month.

As to why the second one did so well, I agree with Bolo, its the ‘Memberberry Syndrom

I didn’t specifically mean the original was a huge hit (although it made a nice profit), I meant something along the lines of ‘if the demand is this high for a ‘franchise’ (if you can call it that) after being dormant for 22 years, why didn’t they rush out and make another one sooner?’. But Bolo’s point is a good one. ‘Jurassic Park III’ made a pittance compared to ‘IV’, so apparently it’s a good idea to wait until the original target audience has offspring.

Subscribe to The Bonus View RSS

Get all latest Bonus View content delivered to your email daily!

Welcome to The Bonus View presented by High-Def Digest!

This blog serves as a catch-all for topics, beyond Blu-ray, that interest us as home theater junkies including movies in theaters, high-definition gear, television shows, video games and 3D programming.